Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture articles from March 2004

Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture archives from March 2004

Search party.(Market Watch)
March 1, 2004... SEARCH PARTY Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only). % CHANGE OCT. NOV. * DEC. YTD Computers/electronics products...

Manufacturing orders remain strong.(Market Watch)
March 1, 2004... TEMPE, AZ -- Orders and production at U.S. manufacturers started 2004 where 2003 left off, growing in January for the eighth straight month. The new orders index remained above 70, a promise of continued recovery ahead. "The manufacturing...

RFID on track for 2005 gains.(Market Watch)
March 1, 2004... OYSTER BAY, NY -- A pair of mandates for 2005, set by Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense for supply-chain based tags are sending manufacturers of RFID tags diving into an increasingly busy market. According to Erik Michielsen, a...

Thin is in: FPD TVs to surge.(Market Watch)
March 1, 2004... FRAMINGHAM, MA -- Flat-panel plasma and LCD TVs are breaking out among the mainstream TV-buying public. According to new research from IDC, dropping price points and growing interest in high-definition television will drive flat-panel TV...

Industry market snapshot.(Market Watch)
March 1, 2004... INDUSTRY MARKET SNAPSHOT Book-to-bills of various components/equipment. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. Semiconductor equipment (1) 0.96 1.0 1.04 1.20 Semiconductors (2) 6.5% 6.8%...

Mentor's Q4 revenue up 11.5%.(Design)
March 1, 2004... WILSONVILLE, OR -- Mentor Graphics reported fourth-quarter revenue rose 12% to $201.9 million, from $180.1 million a year ago. The company forecast record sales in 2004. For the December quarter, net income fell to $13 million, from $18.7...

'You've got EM radiation': Sigrity SI tool available as beta.(Design)
March 1, 2004... SANTA CLARA, CA -- Sigrity Inc. has released co-simulation software capable of advanced analysis capabilities for high-speed PCB and IC package design. SPEED2000 performs full-wave EM simulation, for analyzing power delivery systems and...

Board-on-chip toolset ready: Altium to roll out Nexar this quarter.(Design)
March 1, 2004... SYDNEY -- Last May Altium Ltd. floated a technology called "board-on-chip" design that integrated software and hardware for designing an entire embedded system onto an FPGA. The concept turned the conventional method--in which an FPGA was a...

Mentor to roll out DCL kit for new intel chipset: Grantsdale chip due later this year.(Design)
March 1, 2004... WILSONVILLE, OR -- Mentor Graphics has developed a drop-in core layout kit, linking its Graphics Expedition PCB design flow with Inters next-generation chipset. The DCL kit, available through Intel, will provide an Intel reference...

Mentor CEO Rhines to keynote PCB West.(Around The world)
March 1, 2004... ATLANTA -- Dr. Walden C. Rhines, chief executive and chairman of Mentor Graphics, will describe how changes in IC design, as well as globalization and outsourcing, are behind a revolution in circuit board design in his keynote at the PCB Design...

Shipley, Grace Electron ink supply pact: covers laminates, prepregs in North America.(Around The World)
March 1, 2004... MARLBORO, MA -- Shipley Co. has struck a pact under which it will exclusively distribute Grace Electron's laminate and prepreg materials in North America. Other details were not disclosed. The products will be offered under Shipley's Strata...

Q4 sales up 12% at Cadence.(Around The World)
March 1, 2004... SAN JOSE -- Cadence Design Systems reported fourth-quarter revenue rose to $308 million, from $274 million last year. The EDA software supplier said it would restate income and earnings for fiscal 2002 and the first three quarters of 2003 but...

H2 very good for Cookson: electronics sales up 14%.(Around The World)
March 1, 2004... LONDON -- Cookson Group (cookson group.co.uk) reported pretax operating profits of 31 [pounds sterling] million for 2003, up from 4 [pounds sterling] million last year and beating market estimates. The operating profit for continuing operations...

Revenue reports.(Around The World)
March 1, 2004... Revenue Reports REVENUES (1) COMPANY Q4 03 Q4 02 AT&S E85.61 E76.5 Cadence 308 274 Circuit World C11.5 C7.51 ESI ...

Nothing Toulouse.
March 1, 2004... One Way Circuits is negotiating to open a PCB plant in Toulouse, France. A 10,000 [ft.sup.2] site is possible.

Flextronics its muscle.
March 1, 2004... Flextronics is in talks to buy nearly all the optical, wireless and manufacturing operations of Nortel Networks for more than $500 million in cash. The deal would include more than $2 billion in product orders.

Sales up.
March 1, 2004... CAM software and services supplier Wise Software Solutions (wssi.com) reported fourth-quarter revenues were up 33% over last year, due to increased demand for its GerbTool product and a general market turnaround.

ISO registered.
March 1, 2004... PCB fabricators Dynaco Corp. (dynacocorp.com) and Labtech (labtechcircuits.com) received conformance to ISO 9001:2000.

Just reward.
March 1, 2004... Teknoflex Ltd. received the Chairman's Bronze Award for Innovation from BAE Systems, for its work on the Vertical Launch Sea Wolf project.

Hello, China.
March 1, 2004... Hover-Davis (hoverdavis.com) opened a sales and support center in China.

New newsletter.
March 1, 2004... PCB design and manufacturing firm Lenthor Engineering (lenthor.com) has launched the Flex Circuit Technical Newsletter.

IPO pending?
March 1, 2004... Camtek is planning to raise between $25 million and $35 million in a stock offering, according to published reports. Camtek has declined comment.

OK by Uncle Sam.
March 1, 2004... Endicott Interconnect Technologies has received MIL-PRF-31032 certification from the Defense Supply Center, Colombus and is qualified for MIL-PRF-31032/1 and MIL-PRF-3103212 Type 3, GF and GI materials.

Intel to make PCBs in Russia?(Manufacturing)
March 1, 2004... MOSCOW -- Intel Corp. is in talks with Russian officials to begin producing printed circuit boards, the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology reports. The components would be used for domestic demand and exports. Intel...

Lemelson loses patent ruling: some machine vision patents ruled invalid.(Manufacturing)
March 1, 2004... NATICK, MA -- In a ruling whose implications could be felt across many industries, a federal court has ruled in favor of a plaintiff who claimed that more than a dozen patents owned by the Lemelson Partnership are invalid and unenforceable. An...

KCE's sales up 36%, additions almost done.(Manufacturing)
March 1, 2004... BANGKOK, THAILAND -- KCE Electronics rebounded vigorously during in the first nine months of 2003 and the PCB maker is finishing a major plant expansion. The company reported recently that through the first nine months revenue was up 36% versus...

Events.(Happenings)(Calendar)
March 1, 2004... MARCH 5 Houston SMTA Vendor Show Houston. Contact: smta.org 10-12 CPCA Show Shanghai. Contact: cpca.org.cn/en 15-19 PCB DESIGN CONFERENCE WEST San Jose. Contact: UP Media Group, 678-589-8800,...

M-Flex.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... M-Flex promoted Reza Meshgin to president and chief operations officer. He was vice president/general manager.

Cookson Electronics.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... Cookson Electronics (cookson.com) named Peter A. Palmer senior vice president of marketing and new business development, a new position. He was VP of marketing, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials. Cookson also named Mark A. Dingley vice...

Excellon.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... Excellon (excellon.com) promoted Bob Bell to president from general manager.

MacDermid. (Faces.
March 1, 2004... MacDermid (macdermid.com) named Stephen Largan executive vice president-operations, responsible for all operating units. He was president of MacDermid's Printing Solutions Americas business.

Data Circuit Systems.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... Data Circuit Systems (datacircuits.com) hired Steve Smith for manufacturing and engineering. Smith has 30 years of experience in engineering and operational management. He was operations manager at Waytec.

Hover-Davis Inc.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... Hover-Davis Inc. (hoverdavis.com) named Martin Lutzen, regional sales manager for Asia-Pacific, to manage its news sales and support center in Shenzhen, China.

Park Electrochemical.(Faces)
March 1, 2004... Park Electrochemical (parkelectro.com) named Vito Tanzi as product director, responsible for some FR-4 epoxy and advanced technology products. He was plant manager for Aeroflex MICTechnology Corp., and has spent 10 years in process engineering...

Shoda Techtron Ltd.(It's A Deal)
March 1, 2004... ShodaTechtron Ltd. (stech.co.jp), a manufacturer of V-scoring, beveling, and shear/beveling equipment, named Christopher Group (christopherweb.com) distributor in North America.

Unicircuit Inc. (unicircuit.com) implemented Paradigm ERP from Cimnet Systems.(It's A Deal)
March 1, 2004... Unicircuit Inc. (unicircuit.com) implemented Paradigm ERP from Cimnet Systems (cim-sys.com) at its Roseville, MN, PCB site.

Watlow (watlow.com) has selected CATSWeb tracking software from AssurX Inc. (assurx.com) for its corrective action system.(It's A Deal)
March 1, 2004... Watlow (watlow.com) has selected CATSWeb tracking software from AssurX Inc. (assurx.com) for its corrective action system, to be rolled out at seven plants in 2004.

Chemcut Corp.(It's A Deal)
March 1, 2004... Chemcut Corp. (chemcut.net), a supplier of develop/etch/ strip equipment, named Yessa & Co. (yessa.com) as sales representative for Illinois and east Wisconsin.

Labtech (labtechcircuits.com) installed a MicroLine Cut 350 UV laser.(It's A Deal)
March 1, 2004... Labtech (labtechcircuits.com) installed a MicroLine Cut 350 UV laser and profiling machine from LPKF (lpkf.com.de).

Playing the right sales card: success in sales takes more than hard work; it requires guesswork and luck, too.(Power Selling)
March 1, 2004... IT'S CALLED THE "art" of selling, which is why it drives me crazy when engineers try to apply rhyme and reason to it. Countless times, I have been dragged into long, boring debates over everything from the number of calls a salesperson makes to...

Words of 'value': what meaning do we attach to "partnership" and does it include actually helping each other?(ROI)
March 1, 2004... THE DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS for what most people would consider to be universal, easy-to-understand words always amaze me. Consider "Yankee." Early in my career, I worked with a marketing guy who used this example. As he explained it, to people...

A high-bandwidth probing plan: TDR measurements are useful for characterizing signal channels. But bandwidth limits are determined in the first 0.100".(No Myths Allowed)
March 1, 2004... THE TIME DOMAIN reflectometer (TDR) is the de facto standard for characterizing the impedance profile and transmission properties of a fabricated circuit board trace. The ultimate limits to the bandwidth of a TDR measurement are set in the...

Differential signals routing requirements, Part II: for noise immunity, complementary transmitted signals need to be well balanced and trace impedances symmetrical.(Interconnect Strategies)
March 1, 2004... FIGURE 4 FURTHER demonstrates that traces on both the package and PCB need to be considered for optimum length matching. As mentioned in Part I last month, it is usually desirable to maintain uniform edge-to-edge separation of traces....

Is intelligent data transfer achievable? Hurdles like proprietary CAD databases have been overcome, so what are we waiting for?(CAM Works)
March 1, 2004... WHY IS GERBER still the predominant format used to transfer information to fabrication? In 1992, my former partner Rich Nedbal and I pioneered some intelligent data transfer work when we fully supported IPC-D-350 within CAM350. Therefore, I...

Design at the speed of 6 Gb/s: loss tangent and skin effect can degrade rise and fall times, blow noise and timing budgets, or worse. Good analysis is the only cost-effective solution.(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... Over the past few years many designers and engineers have become aware of the need to control schematic-level circuit design as well as PCB design to maintain functionality of digital circuits that host high-speed signals. High-speed signals...

Working with fabricators: tricks of the trade: designers, don't overlook these simple steps for preparing the design the right way.(Design Checklists)
March 1, 2004... As with Web design in the past several years and desktop publishing before that, circuit board design has evolved from the responsibility of a few technical elites to part of the day-to-day job of engineers in all industries. To a large extent,...

Cost modeling or price comparing? Complex tools aren't needed if what you want is to compare prices.(Getting Embedded)
March 1, 2004... GOING BACK A few years, I recall taking some sketches of an idea, a "black box," to the "model shop" and having a 3D version of my idea formed out of a variety of materials, from plywood, plastic, plaster of Paris or clay. Keep in mind this was...

Master your densitometer, minimize film problems: fine-tuning the film process means knowing what this oft-misused equipment is saying.(Better Phototooling)
March 1, 2004... FEW THINGS IN diazo phototooling are absolutely foolproof, but mastery of the densitometer can go a long way toward increasing output and eliminating rework. Yet my guess is, only a fraction of fabricators use them correctly. A...

How to read a roadmap: roadmaps are invaluable but can be misunderstood. A roadmap may claim that microvias are standard technology, for example, but it doesn't mean they are standard for every PCB shop.(Technology Forecasting)
March 1, 2004... Roadmapping is not a new activity. Corporations such as Motorola in the U.S. and Phillips in Europe have decades of experience using roadmaps. Technology roadmaps are mechanisms enabling industry, academia, private researchers and governments...

Via hole plugging processes: an overview of the advantages and drawbacks to typical plugging methods.(Hole Plugging)
March 1, 2004... The demand for HDI circuit boards has made via plugging popular. Yet, as it often turns out, the filling process itself and the subsequent process steps for creating a planar and metalized plug are not as easy to achieve as one should expect....

China: No. 2, with a bullet: forecasts call for 20% growth in PCBs in what is quickly becoming the global epicenter for electronics production.(China's PCB Market)
March 1, 2004... In 2001 China's GDP reached 9.6 trillion renminbi (RMB), the sixth largest in the world, after the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France. (The Chinese currency is valued at about 8.3 RMB:US$1.) In 2002 China's GDP grew to 10.2 trillion RMB...

Mother's milk: the presence of elevated levels of brominated flame-retardants in breast milk might finally force states to ban their use.(Green Thoughts)
March 1, 2004... REMEMBER THE MAINE, the battle cry of thousands of U.S. soldiers during the Spanish-American War, may be co-opted by environmentalists calling for reducing the levels of brominated flame-retardants in consumer products. On Dec. 23, Maine...

Show time! PCB Design Conference West 2004.(PCB West 2004 Preview)(Calendar)
March 1, 2004... Conference: March 15-19, 2004 Exhibition: March 16-17, 2004 San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Monday, March 15 9am-5pm Professional Development Certificate Courses * One-day and...

High-speed spindle.(off the shelf)
March 1, 2004... The Tornado air-bearing drilling spindle is said to be capable of 160,000 rpm. Comes with novel AutomaticTool Change system, and reportedly withstands more than 500,000 tool changes. WHO: Westwind Air Bearings WEB:...

'All-use' RF connectors.(off the shelf)
March 1, 2004... The subminiature MCX and micro-miniature MMCX connectors feature snap-on mating for quick connection and disconnection. Straight and right-angle cable connectors in both series are available as crimp types for flexible or rigid cables....

Real-time trace inspection.(off the shelf)
March 1, 2004... QCTrace Cam integrated inspection system is for applications requiring a magnified inspection area. Provides a clear, magnified view of the milling, drilling or routing process while a board is being fabricated. Permits real-time viewing of...

V-groove scoring.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... SL13.20 compact CNC V-scoring machine is fully automatic with x-y cutting, clamping system and independent top-bottom depth control. SL13.11 version comes in manual and fully automatic, and features jump scoring and programmable depth control....

Embedded cap material.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... Interra HK11 planar embedded capacitor laminate is a 14 [micro]m thick ceramic-filled dielectric. Is said to have a high Dk. Series also includes 25 and 18 pm thick HK04 and 25 [micro]m thick HK10. WHO: DuPont Electronic Technologies ...

Thickness measurement.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... The IT-700HA measures PCB thickness. Is automatic, and is designed for controlled impedance PCBs. WHO: Shoda/Christopher Group WEB: stech.co.jp/christopherweb.com

LCP-based laminate.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... R/flex 3850 double-clad laminate has a Dk of 2.9 and is dimensional stable, for dense fine-line applications. Comes in a range of copper and film thicknesses, and in standard panel formats. Designed for controlled impedance flex boards,...

Film registration.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... The PS registration system is for alignment of screen-printing film positives to frames, before exposure. Accommodates different size frames, and fits most exposers and has an easy four-step setup process. Uses Bacher punching systems. Comes in...

PCB layout software.(Others Of Note)
March 1, 2004... McCAD PCBST v 2.5.12 is an integrated PCB layout design environment. Features include an on-line library editor, user-definable design libraries, custom SMT macro generator, net and part query and editing, and auto labeling. Also includes...

Let there be light.(Our Line)
March 1, 2004... WHEN John Bardeen and Walter Brattain produced their first transistor in December 1947, it was almost certainly a light emitter but at such a low level as to be undetectable. The field later developed around manipulating electrons rather than...